[MUD-Dev] Re: Levels versus Skills, who uses them and when.

[Ling]

On Tue, 5 Jan 1999, Andy Cink wrote:
> 
> I've been giving this a lot of thought lately, because my mud
> is going to use a levelless system. The problem now becomes,
> A) How do we show a clear path of advancement? and B) How can
> players keep track of "where they stand" compared to the other
> players. I was presently thinking on borrowing a system used by
> a LP mud I used to play. They call it an "eval" system (maybe
> they all do, I only found one LP mud I really got addicted to)
> but the eval system works by making a composite number score
> based on the stats and skills a person has over what they started
> at.

[eval details snipped]

> The problems are numerous, however. Some players will have a lot
> of points in less useful skills, and still be granted eval for
> it. (Or some classes simply have more skills or less powerful
> skills than others) This leads to a lot of doctor-type class
> people complaining that a fighter-type of half their eval just
> kicked their ass in the arena. But a fighter type's eval skill
> may come from headbutt, and a medic's may come from surgery.
> This creates a fundamental power imbalance, since eval is really
> pretty arbitrary, and even fairly easy to manipulate by picking
> up skill levels in select areas.

How about multiple 'evals'.  To take a random pen and paper game off the
top of my head.  FASA's version of Star Trek had three eval numbers for
each ship, one for defensive, one for offensive and a final combination of
the two.  You could easily extend this for combat, random things and more
random things (sorry for not being helpful there but I can't think of
anything).  Anyway, I like this system coz I don't think it's fair to
judge people with one unified scale.  It's as Victorian as having an IQ
rating.

An rpg called Heavy Gear uses four numbers to rate its Gears (mechs).
Offensive, Defensive, Miscellanous plus Threat Value (which was some weird
figure involving a cube root I think).  I realise both the above examples
are a bit poo coz they're wargame orientated but you get my drift. :)

  |    Ling Lo (aka Lethargic Lad)
_O_O_  kllo at iee.org